PNWA switched to the “power pitch” format a few years ago, where you sign up for one or two 90-minute blocks and then can pitch to as many agents as you can get in line for in 4-minute segments. My fellow author Mark, whom I met at the conference, has a post that goes into more detail about what it looks like: http://suburbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2015/07/pnwa-conference-2015.html
Everything was run very smoothly, and I got to pitch to 6(!) agents and editors in my two blocks. I had honed my pitch down to about three sentences, which meant they had plenty of time to ask me questions. Even though there was an outrageous lot of waiting in line, I felt like the 4 minutes was enough time to make my pitch and get a feel for the personality of the agent. I also appreciated getting to talk to more than 1 or 2 agents, which was the limit under the previous system (where you booked a 10-minute slot with a particular one). The only downside is that it uses up a whole session time slot, so this post represents two sessions
I got one enthusiastic yes and one yes that was almost as excited, plus a few tentative yes-es and one request for my other book that I haven’t finished writing yet. (I could tell she wasn’t as enthused about the project I was pitching, but then she asked, “Do you have another book in mind?” I gave her the quick summary of that one, and she was like, “Ooh, write that and send it to me!”) The enthusiastic yes was also the agent I was most excited about (I’m not naming names because nothing might come of it, but I would be so excited to work with her).
So now I am hard at work revising my manuscript with all the new craft tips I picked up! I warned them I wasn’t going to send it the next week because I’d already learned too much to send it without editing, and none of them was alarmed by that. I have all their business cards on my wall for motivation and inspiration!